Brent E Taylor

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1. 6 accuse ex-youth symphony director of sexual misconduct
   view source details | 29 Apr 2018 | Deseret News
2. Ex-youth symphony director charged with sexually assaulting a teen musician in Utah County
   view source details | 17 Nov 2018 | Salt Lake Tribune
3. Former Utah Valley Youth Symphony director charged with sexually assaulting teenager
   view source details | 16 Nov 2018 | Provo Daily Herald
4. Former Sandy Sunday School teacher, youth leader charged with sexually abusing children
   view source details | 21 Dec 2018 | KUTV
5. Brent E. Taylor Indictment
   view source details | 22 Dec 2018 | Scribd
6. Ex-youth orchestra director charged with abuse ordered to wear ankle monitor
   view source details | 7 Jan 2019 | Deseret News
7. Judge declines to dismiss sex abuse case against ex-youth symphony director
   view source details | 8 Jul 2020 | KSL
8. Trial delayed for ex-youth symphony leader accused of sexual crime
   view source details | 30 Mar 2022 | KSL
9. Judge accuses ex-youth symphony leader of exaggerating health issues to avoid sex abuse trial
   view source details | 17 Jun 2023 | KSL
10. Is youth symphony leader charged with Utah sex crimes tied to death of his nurse?
    view source details | 9 Sep 2023 | KSL
11. Ex-Utah County youth symphony leader accused of molesting teens pleads guilty just before trial
    view source details | 18 Jun 2024 | KSL

Case information source details

• 6 accuse ex-youth symphony director of sexual misconduct
  Publisher: Deseret News
  Date: 29 Apr 2018
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  PROVO — Spurred in part by allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men across the country, three former teenage employees of a youth symphony orchestra in Utah County say one of its longtime leaders either sexually abused them or inappropriately touched them years apart.

  The accusers, now men in their 30s and 40s, gave detailed accounts of repeated sexual behavior that they say occurred with Brent E. Taylor at his home, in his car and across state lines between roughly 1985 and 2003, starting by the time they were no older than 14, 15 and 16.

  A fourth man, a former neighbor, also recalled sexual interactions with Taylor as a young teen and said the man provided him with alcohol and marijuana. Another accuser filed a police report in 2011 alleging that his brother-in-law had been abused by Taylor as a youth. A sixth man, also a former orchestra employee, described lewd activities at Taylor's home when he spoke to police in 2011.

  As adults, two of the former employees also told authorities of grooming and misconduct that they say spanned much of their teenage years, police reports show, including during the time they sorted music and hauled equipment for the former executive director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony who retired in 2017 after 44 years with the group.

  In separate interviews, they said he provided pornography and liquor.

  “I wish I would have had courage when I was 14 to stand and say no, but then who was going to buy me cigarettes?” said one of the men, Jeff, who asked to be identified only by his first name.

  Taylor's attorney, Richard Casper, said he was not aware of such allegations against Taylor, including those detailed in reports filed by Sandy police, Orem police and Provo police.

  "I don't have any information that any of that is true. I don't know how I can deny or admit an anonymous allegation. I have no information that any of those allegations ever occurred," Casper said last week.

  “He has never been summoned before any court on account of his conduct with any person. He has never been charged with a crime against another person,” Casper said. "I can tell you for certain that no police agency in Utah has ever contacted Mr. Taylor about an investigation."

  Taylor, also a former schoolteacher, led the group at times as executive director but also as a business manager who occasionally stepped in as conductor, Casper said. The group began with up to 45 young performers but grew to as many as 120, with some 3,000 to 5,000 students participating over the course of Taylor's career, Casper said, before his retirement June 30.

  The 70-year-old Taylor, reached by phone, asked for the names of the accusers and deferred comment to his attorney. Court records hold no indication that he has ever been criminally charged in these or any other cases.

  Daniel Christensen, a youth symphony board member, said in an email that symphony directors and staff "have no firsthand knowledge of any misconduct within the organization, either by or against any student participant, officer or director. If anyone knows of any such misconduct, we strongly encourage those persons, including students, to immediately pass those allegations on to the appropriate legal authorities.

  "We also suggest that parents listen to their children. If any student feels uncomfortable or unsafe, we would like to know. We condemn and do not tolerate any sexual misconduct."

  He said the group is committed to ensuring a safe learning environment for students and staff. Another board member, Blanka Bednarz, declined to comment.

  After inquiries from the Deseret News, Sandy police in February reopened one of the investigations, more than a decade after officers there concluded and documented in a 2005 report — perhaps incorrectly — that the statute of limitations in the case had run out.

  The cases spotlight the time limits embedded in Utah's criminal code, which block prosecutors from charging suspects after certain amounts of time have passed. The length of time available depends on the type of case.

  John Myers, a law professor at California’s University of the Pacific who specializes in child sex abuse cases and reviewed three old police reports for the Deseret News, said he believes police had compiled enough evidence to arrest Taylor, if not for the statutes that they believed had expired. “This was not a probable-cause issue, or a lack-of-evidence issue. That is a straightforward statute-of-limitations issue,” he said.

  The three men said they are speaking up now because they don’t want the same things to happen to anyone else.

  ***

  Jeff, whose case was just reopened in Sandy, said he was moved to come forward one night when he saw news coverage of the sexual abuse of scores of victims at the hands of youth gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in what some have termed the largest sex abuse scandal in sports history.

  “The memories are always there," Jeff said.

  He now recognizes that the constant incentives he says Taylor offered him, first as a neighbor boy and later as an employee, were grooming tactics. He told Sandy police he "had sexual relations with (Taylor) from the time he was 12 until he turned 19," a 2005 police report states.

  Another man, Eric Bartlett, said he contemplated suicide as he grappled with guilt and shame.

  “Even as I was beating myself up for it for years, I still was wanting to protect the guy. That's the kind of power he has over people,” Bartlett said. “I just am sleepless at night wondering how many kids are going through what I went through.”

  The Deseret News generally does not identify victims of sexual crimes, but Bartlett agreed to be identified. Jeff asked that only his first name be used. A third former symphony crew worker, a French horn player, requested not to be named.

  "As soon as (you called) me, I knew exactly what it was about and why," the third man told the Deseret News. "It wasn't expected, but it also wasn't surprising."

  Interviews with the accusers, employees, former employees and former youth symphony musicians cast Taylor as gregarious, likable and easy to confide in. Some said they were unaware of any alleged misconduct in the extracurricular organization. The symphony has performed in Carnegie Hall and in Europe, giving teens a chance to play in a more professional setting than their schools generally afford.

  ***

  Before joining the work crew, Jeff recalled being roughly 12 years old and eager to turn a profit from mowing lawns when Taylor moved in across the street from him in his Sandy neighborhood, joining his LDS ward and becoming a “go-to client” for yard work.

  Jeff and a neighbor boy began riding ATVs. “When you're 14, you just don't go out and buy a four-wheeler. He capitalized on that and he said that he would finance — he would buy me a four-wheeler in exchange for oral sex,” Jeff said of Taylor.

  The new ATV never materialized, but Jeff said he now views the alleged promise as one of several incentives that tethered him to the man for most of his adolescence.

  Taylor “would have him come over to his house” and would “perform oral sex on Jeffrey and Jeffrey would perform oral sex” on him, according to a Sandy police report filed in 2005. At the time, Jeff told a Sandy officer that he went to police because he was worried that Taylor “is doing the same things to little boys that he did to him. He wants to help put a stop to this,” the report states.

  ***

  Neither Jeff’s nor Bartlett’s police reports were sent to Salt Lake or Utah county prosecutors, who have no record of the cases.

  After he was presented with Jeff’s initial report to police, Blake Nakamura, who oversees prosecution of child sex crimes in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, said his staff has reviewed the reports and the state code “very, very carefully” and believes the statute of limitations may not have expired yet. It’s a different conclusion than the one Sandy police reached in 2005.

  "Therefore, we’re asking the agency to investigate this matter completely, which it has not done," Nakamura said. Sandy police have begun investigating again, said Sgt. Jason Nielsen, but he declined to make available a detective who closed Jeff's case almost 13 years ago.

  Nakamura wants to review results of the investigation before making a decision, he added.

  In Utah, there is no time limit for prosecutors to charge suspects with some of the most severe felonies, including sodomy on a child. But under Utah law, alleged victims are only considered children if they are 13 or younger.

  When Jeff was awarded his Eagle Scout medal at age 14, “I was so ashamed of everything else that was going on in my life that I couldn't even look up” during the ceremony, he said. “I stared at my feet the whole flippin' time.” But he said he can't pinpoint the date the alleged abuse began. ­­

  Deputy attorney general Craig Barlow said the difference is key.

  "If I were screening this as a prosecutor and I couldn't narrow it down, and I wasn’t really, really confident that this stuff occurred when he was under 14, then you don't have the advantage of any of these extended statutes of limitations," Barlow said.

  And the statutes exist for good reason, Myers added.

  “After a lengthy period of time goes by, it becomes difficult for a defendant to properly prepare a defense. Witnesses have died. Witnesses have moved away. Documents are lost. Witnesses can’t remember," he said. "It’s not fair to expect defendants to defend themselves when the evidence is so old, lost or lost to memory.”

  ***

  Jeff said the abuse continued when he was 15 and his family moved to Phoenix. Taylor "would visit Jeffrey and the same acts would be performed," a Sandy police report states.

  Jeff turned to alcohol and methamphetamines to cope with the abuse, he said. By his senior year of high school, addiction took hold.

  Taylor had moved to Chicago, where Taylor's attorney said he lived from 1989 to 1997, when he worked for a music company there. Taylor offered to Jeff's parents that he detox at Taylor's home, Jeff said, where the sexual behavior continued until he left to serve an LDS mission in the Southern states in 1992. Taylor visited occasionally, taking Jeff and his mission companion to dinners.

  After his mission, Jeff broke his pelvis while snowboarding, took on debt from the medical bills and eventually moved into Taylor's basement apartment after Taylor returned from Illinois to Provo.

  Teenage crew members would come to the house and Jeff recalls trying "to run them out," fearing they would be abused as he had been, though he said he never saw any misconduct.

  Jeff acknowledges he "kept showing up" years later, and expects some may question that.

  "That's the part I need to be prepared for … (people) saying, 'Well why is it wrong now … because it wasn't wrong 10 years after it happened?' … But the reality is that it was wrong. I was a kid. Regardless of what happened when I was an adult, I was still a kid when it happened. So it was wrong, and it shouldn't have happened.

  "It shouldn't have happened to anybody. And I wish it hadn't happened to me. But it did and I've compartmentalized it," he said. "I've dealt with it the way I've dealt with it. It's been a long process, but I'm willing to stop anything else that might happen tomorrow or tonight."

  ***

  Jeff's childhood friend Scott, who also grew up in the neighborhood, separately gave a similar account of his own experiences with Taylor, starting when he was 13.

  Jeff and Scott said they spent a significant amount of time together with Taylor, but were never aware of the other's alleged sexual interactions.

  Scott, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said Taylor was the boys' Sunday School teacher, and he often ended up at Taylor's home, where musicians would gather to play.

  Once the band left, Scott said Taylor would play pornography and those encounters progressed into mutual masturbation and oral sex. He also described similar activities with Taylor in multiple hotel rooms.

  Taylor provided alcohol and marijuana, he added, recalling that he got drunk and high in his adult neighbor's presence.

  But Scott said he has no ill will toward Taylor and did not come to see the behavior as inappropriate until recently. He credits his former neighbor with sparking his love of classical music and art.

  "Part of me still likes him. For a long time I didn’t think of it as him molesting me," Scott said. "I look back and see that obviously it wasn’t right. I see things clearer now that I’m older."

  ***

  Bartlett was roughly 15 years old and a trombone player in the youth symphony when he began working in the logistics crew in 1997 to offset orchestra tuition, he said, recalling Taylor at that point “as the guy you could swear around and make sex jokes around.”

  As part of the job, the crew of about a half-dozen teens went out to eat and cleaned their boss’ house once a week, said Bartlett and the third former employee who asked his name be withheld.

  The music teacher referred to those closest to him as “wayward boys,” Bartlett said. He said Taylor often showed pornography, sharing the password to a porn subscription service, during the time when Jeff was living downstairs.

  He said he received back rubs and shoulder rubs from Taylor that “sometimes included rubbing feet, legs, thighs, hands. I never knew how far it was meant to go until it was over; I felt paralyzed and helpless, like he was showing me that he had total control over every inch of my body.”

  And when he drove Bartlett to symphony rehearsals, Bartlett recalled, Taylor reached his hand up the boy's shorts, stopping just short of his genitals on more than one occasion. Taylor then would release a throaty “fake pervert” laugh, Bartlett said, and joke about molesting him.

  "He said Brent stopped when he told him to and there was never any more physical contact with (Bartlett), but (he) knows there was sexual contact with other boys," an Orem police report from March 2011 states.

  He said Taylor "had told them once that he was accused by one of the boys of abuse and he was really hurt by the accusation," the report states. "(Bartlett) believes he was using this to discourage the boys from telling anyone."

  During another interview with Orem police in April 2011, Bartlett was asked if Taylor had ever warned him or threatened him about telling others. He said Taylor "would often tell a story of a teacher who was friends with a boy. The boy told his mother the teacher had done something to him and he lost his job," the police report states. "(Bartlett) believed Taylor was referring to himself as the teacher and it might be a true story."

  After joining the symphony work crew, Bartlett said he and another boy went on road trips to Las Vegas with Taylor to see the musical "Les Miserables" and the Blue Man Group. Their boss provided screwdrivers — Absolut Mandarin vodka and orange juice — to the group, he said.

  At 22 years old, Bartlett said he cut ties with Taylor. About five years later, he was working at a Provo hotel when the youth symphony reserved an event room. It jolted him, and he confided in his LDS bishop, who reported allegations of misconduct to Orem police in March 2011.

  In January 2012, Orem police sent the Bartlett case to officers in neighboring Provo, where they determined that most of the misconduct was alleged to have occurred.

  Provo police eventually closed the case. One officer wrote he tried to reach other possible witnesses but was unsuccessful. The statute in that case had expired, officers noted.

  ***

  Casper said Taylor, his client, has health issues that have required major surgery and he now lives in Denver to take care of his mother, who recently had a stroke. He commutes to Utah as a musical consultant, Casper said — work that is winding down as he eases into retirement and focuses on caring for his mother. Casper would not elaborate on Taylor's consulting.

  According to Casper, someone raised allegations against his client in an email to the symphony in 2011, falsely claiming Taylor had been convicted of unspecified crimes when Taylor was teaching school in Cache Valley.

  The attorney declined to provide a copy of the email or say who sent it, calling the allegation “false and defamatory.”

  Casper responded to the accuser in an email dated March 23, 2011, which he provided to the Deseret News. He sought specifics and warned that such accusations, if false, are potentially libelous. Casper said he received no response.

  Days before Casper replied roughly seven years ago, a man told Orem police that when Taylor taught school in Logan in the 1970s, he "convinced" a student — the man's brother-in-law — to strip to his underwear "and was touching him inappropriately," according to the 2011 Orem report obtained through a public records request. The names of the alleged victim and his brother-in-law were redacted.

  No charges were filed in the case, court records show, and police in Logan did not receive such a report. Taylor taught at Logan Junior High School in 1976 and 1977, according to the Utah State Board of Education.

  In that Orem police report, an officer wrote that the man filing the complaint had contacted "a director of the symphony and was told some parents had expressed similar concerns in the past, but no proof could verify the claims and nothing happened."

  The director, whose name was redacted from the report, told the man "he tried to keep an eye on Brent and feels he has not been able to do anything inappropriate."

  In 2012, Provo police spoke with Britton Davis, a conductor who also had other leadership roles with the youth symphony program over four decades before his death in 2014. He “was aware of a report made against Brent some 35 years ago but has not directly seen any activity as I have described,” the officer wrote in the report.

  Taylor's teaching career began at Orem Junior High School in 1973, where he taught for three years, before transferring to Logan Junior High School, according to the state board. He most recently taught at Lone Peak High School in Highland from 2003 to 2007, working part time for three years before teaching orchestra full time his last year, a spokeswoman for the Alpine School District said. He resigned after that, citing "other professional opportunities,” according to the district.

  Kameron Conley, the youth symphony's executive director who took over when Taylor retired, said Taylor’s departure did not stem from any allegations of wrongdoing.

  “He worked as an educator for years, so there was never a worry in my mind and as a student, there was nothing that ever occurred like that,” said Conley, adding that Taylor was his own high school orchestra teacher in Las Vegas from 2007 to 2010. “Anything like that would be something that I would not believe happened.”

  “He was a wonderful educator, a wonderful leader, a great person in the area,” he said, adding that he has seen his mentor around young people since he was 15.

  ***

  The sixth man who Bartlett said accompanied him as a teen on symphony road trips, who was also a symphony work crew member at the time, told Orem officers investigating that case in May 2011 that he had seen Taylor naked “on several occasions and it usually had to do with being in a hot tub” either on the road or at the Provo home, and that the man would play pornography and then conduct a session “in which they would all masturbate,” according to an Orem police report that redacted his name.

  During that interview, police asked the man for more detailed information about their relationship. He said "Taylor always injected what Taylor named 'plausible deniability' to create a way for him to avoid getting into trouble," a police report states. "I asked (him) how that related to him and he did not want to talk about it. … I asked him if he felt he had been victimized by Taylor and he again advised he didn't want to talk about it."

  ***

  The third member of the work crew, a man who asked not to be identified, played French horn in the music organization and began working for the crew at age 15, he said, once traveling to Carnegie Hall with the group.

  On Saturday mornings, after cleaning Taylor's house, some of the boys stayed to watch "The Lord of the Rings" and relax in Taylor's hot tub. Orange-flavored vodka was available there, he recalled.

  Taylor began encouraging the boys to get in his hot tub naked, and also removed his clothing before joining them, the man and Bartlett said in separate interviews.

  The man remembers sharing a few sexual exchanges with Taylor.

  “I know that there was fondling involved. I know that there was oral sex involved. There was obviously making out and body contact,” he said.

  He was wrestling with feelings of attraction for both men and women at that time, he said, and believed the other boys in the tight-knit group also felt out of place in the broader community.

  “We all felt like outcasts,” he said. “The fact that we had someone that not only understood us but we had a connection to, was extremely important in our growing lives.”

  At the time, the relationship "didn't feel like a predator. It felt like a mother bear," he said. "All of this felt perfectly normal. He was very, very good at making it seem like this was our exploration as young adults growing up in the world."

  Those who have experienced sexual abuse or assault can be connected to trained advocates through Utah's statewide 24-hour Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 888-421-1100.

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  Ex-youth symphony director charged with sexually assaulting a teen musician in Utah County
  Publisher: Salt Lake Tribune
  Date: 17 Nov 2018
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  A former longtime director for the Utah Valley Youth Symphony was charged Thursday with sexually assaulting a teen musician more than a decade ago.

  Brent E. Taylor, 70, was charged with forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony that carries a potential penalty of up to life in prison.

  Utah County prosecutors wrote in charging documents that the accuser came to police earlier this year and reported he had been sexually abused by Taylor in 2004 and 2005.

  The man said he was between 14 and 18 years old and a high school student when a “sexual grooming process” began with the orchestra director.

  He described escalating encounters at Taylor’s residence, where he and other boys from the orchestra would spend time. The boys sat in Taylor’s hot tub, the man reported to police, and at times he hot-tubbed with Taylor naked.

  The symphony director also offered the boys alcohol, pornography and sex toys, prosecutors allege.

  “Mr. Taylor would reassure [the accuser] by talking about how it was natural for boys to be sexually curious and experimental,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

  The criminal charge is in connection to one occasion in 2004 or 2005 when Taylor allegedly performed a sex act on the teen.

  Prosecutors noted in charging documents that four other people have made delayed reports accusing Taylor of similar activity, but he won’t face any other charges because the statute of limitations had expired.

  No court dates had been set as of Friday.

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  Former Utah Valley Youth Symphony director charged with sexually assaulting teenager
  Publisher: Provo Daily Herald
  Date: 16 Nov 2018
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  A former executive director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony is facing charges for sexually assaulting a teenage musician several years ago.

  Brent E. Taylor, 70, was charged in 4th District Court in Provo on Thursday with one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony.

  The charges stem from one man who reported the sexual assault to the Provo Police Department earlier this year.

  The man told investigators that he was a high school student and a member of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony when the reported sexual abuse occurred. Taylor was in his 50s at the time, according to charging documents.

  Court documents state several male teenage members of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony went through “a sexually grooming process” by Taylor.

  The man told investigators he was between 14 and 18 years old when Taylor allegedly invited several male musicians to his home in Provo.

  Taylor would discuss sex and masturbation while in the hot tub with the teenagers, court documents state. During one visit, the man said he and Taylor sat naked in the hot tub.

  The sexual activities escalated to Taylor inappropriate touching the teenager and “group masturbation involving multiple boys,” according to charging documents.

  The man also told investigators Taylor would provide alcohol, pornography, and sex toys to the teenagers. Taylor would reassure them that “it was natural for boys to be sexually curious and experimental,” prosecutors wrote in the court documents.

  Taylor reportedly offered and requested other sex acts from the teenager, who finally “relented” on one occasion in 2004 or 2005. The teenager stopped the act after a few seconds, charging documents state.

  Other male members of the youth symphony were involved in the sexual activities, and police received complaints from four other men who described similar activities with Taylor.

  But the alleged offenses had expired under the statute of limitations and could not be pursued, prosecutors wrote.

  The forcible sexual abuse described by the man cannot be charged as the statute of limitations expired in 2013. But the Legislature amended Utah laws in 2008 to allow charges for forcible sodomy to be prosecuted at any time.

  According to a past biography on the Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra website, Taylor is a graduate of Brigham Young University and taught high school in several states. He also worked as a string specialist in the Summerhays Music Center Pro Shop.

  No court date was set as of Friday.

  If you are in danger or have an emergency, please call 911.

  If you suspect child abuse or neglect, please call the Division of Child and Family Services 24-hour intake line at (855) 323-3237.

  Utah law requires any person who has reason to believe that a child has been subjected to abuse, neglect, or dependency to immediately notify the nearest office of Child and Family Services, a peace officer, or a law enforcement agency. Abuse, neglect, or dependency of a child can be physical, emotional, or sexual.

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  Former Sandy Sunday School teacher, youth leader charged with sexually abusing children
  Publisher: KUTV
  Date: 21 Dec 2018
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  SANDY (KUTV) — A Utah man is facing two counts of sexual abuse of a child, and two counts of sodomy upon a child for events which allegedly happened in the 1980s, according to new charging documents.

  Now 70, Brent E. Taylor is accused of sexually abusing two children while he was in his 30's and was a church leader and the Executive Director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra.

  Court documents list Taylor's current address in Provo.

  Taylor has not yet been arrested on these allegations, but he is facing a felony charge of forcible sodomy stemming from another case in the 4th District Court.

  The alleged abuse happened in Sandy during the 1980's while two male victims were between 12 and 17-years-old.

  The graphic charging documents, which you can read below, detail abuse against the two boys, one of whom first told police about the abuse in 2005.

  That first victim says when he was between 11 and 12-years-old he began doing yard work and other tasks at Taylor's home, shortly after Taylor had moved across the street.

  He eventually began working for Taylor at the Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra before Taylor "introduced him to alcohol, tobacco and pornography," according to charging documents.

  That's when the sexual abuse began. He was 13-years-old at the time.

  That abuse included Taylor performing oral sex on the boy, and "coaching" the boy on how to perform oral sex on him. Multiple other incidents of sexual abuse happened for years.

  The second victim was a childhood friend of the first victim, and met Taylor when he was 11-years-old.

  The second victim says Taylor was his Sunday School teacher at an unspecified church, and he also assisted Taylor at The Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra.

  The second victim says Taylor began abusing him when he was 12-years-old and continued until Taylor moved, when he was 15-years-old.

  The second victim told police about abuse similar to that described by the first victim, but stated that "he felt he and Taylor were in a relationship," according to charging documents.

  Police detail the reasons why the charges are coming in 2018, 13 years after being first reported in 2005, and more than 30 years after the alleged incidents happened:

  "The abuse occurred, in part, from late December 1984 through late December 1985. From 1983 to 1991, charges of Sodomy Upon a Child and Sexual Abuse of a Child had to commence within one year after the report of the offenses to law enforcement, so long as no more than eight years had elapsed since the commission of the offense. In 1991, the statute of limitations was amended allowing for charges to be commenced within four years after the report of the offense to a law enforcement agency."

  "On May 5, 2008 the law was again amended allowing for charges to be commenced at any time. [The first victim] first reported this abuse to the police on September 9, 2005. So at that time, charges for the crimes of Sodomy Upon a Child and Sexual Abuse of a Child had to commence within four years after report to a law enforcement agency. Therefore, the statute of limitations was set to expire on September 9, 2009. However, on May 5, 2008, before that statute of limitations expired, the law was changed allowing charges for the crimes of Sodomy Upon a Child and Sexual Abuse of a Child to be commenced at any time."

  We've posted the charging documents below (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT):

  Brent E. Taylor Indictment by on Scribd [link archived by FLOODLIT]

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  Brent E. Taylor Indictment
  Publisher: Scribd
  Date: 22 Dec 2018
  Archive.org
  Source type: Court record

  [FLOODLIT note: uploaded to Scribd on 22 December 2018; 6-page document; Utah case number 18027064]

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  Ex-youth orchestra director charged with abuse ordered to wear ankle monitor
  Publisher: Deseret News
  Date: 7 Jan 2019
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  SALT LAKE CITY — The former director of a Utah County youth orchestra accused of sexually abusing three boys about 30 years ago was ordered Monday to wear an ankle monitor.

  Brent E. Taylor, 70, who retired in June 2017 after more than four decades with the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, is charged in 3rd District Court with sexually abusing a former employee and another boy in Sandy in the mid-1980s, starting when they were 12 and 13 years old. He also faces charges in Utah County of engaging in sexual behavior with a then-teenage musician from 2002-06.
  Third District Judge Keith Kelly talks to Brent E. Taylor, former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, and his attorney, Cara Tangaro, during a hearing at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Taylor, who is accused of

  Third District Judge Keith Kelly talks to Brent E. Taylor, former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, and his attorney, Cara Tangaro, during a hearing at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Taylor, who is accused of sexually abusing three boys about 30 years ago, was ordered Monday to wear an ankle monitor.

  Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

  Taylor, who now lives in Colorado, made his initial appearance in court Monday before 3rd District Judge Keith Kelly, along with his attorney, Cara Tangaro. Because of his out-of-state residency, health issues and the fact the crimes allegedly happened in 1984, Kelly supported an agreement reached between prosecutors and Taylor that he remain free pending his court proceedings, but that he must wear an ankle monitor.

  The judge also ordered Taylor not to have contact with anyone under 18 and to surrender his passport.

  Jeff, a former employee of the symphony and one of Taylor's alleged victims who asked that his last name not be published, told the judge that he believes Taylor continues to pose a threat to the community.

  "I've continued to think that, and that's why we've pressed so hard with the way we've gotten to this point. We've been working on it for 15 years. We feel pretty happy with where we're at," he said after the brief hearing was concluded.

  As long as Taylor's passport is surrendered so he can't flee the country, Jeff said he supports the pretrial release conditions.

  "The judge made the right decision to protect the community and kids that are in harm's way by keeping an ankle monitor (on Taylor)," he said.

  Kelly ordered Taylor to immediately report to pretrial services following Monday's hearing. Tangaro said her client, who used a cane to walk, is scheduled to be booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday and then be released.

  Taylor and his attorney declined comment outside the courtroom. She has previously said that her client maintains that he did not abuse anyone.

  "Brent's denying that he's ever sexually abused and/or was sexually inappropriate with any children," she said.
  Brent E. Taylor, former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, and his attorney, Cara Tangaro, listen to prosecutors during a hearing before 3rd District Judge Keith Kelly at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Taylor,

  Brent E. Taylor, former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, and his attorney, Cara Tangaro, listen to prosecutors during a hearing before 3rd District Judge Keith Kelly at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Taylor, who is accused of sexually abusing three boys about 30 years ago, was ordered Monday to wear an ankle monitor.

  Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

  Taylor is charged in Salt Lake County with two counts of sodomy upon a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. He is charged in Provo's 4th District Court with forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, in a separate case.

  Taylor's next court hearing in the Sandy case is scheduled for Jan. 28. His initial appearance in the Provo case is scheduled for Tuesday.

  Taylor was the focus of a Deseret News investigation published in April outlining sexual misconduct accusations from six men. Three of them said Taylor either sexually abused them or inappropriately touched them when they were teenage employees of the orchestra.

  A fourth man also recalled sexual interactions with Taylor as a young teen and said the man provided him with alcohol and marijuana. Another accuser filed a police report in 2011 alleging that his brother-in-law had been abused by Taylor as a youth. A sixth man, also a former orchestra employee, described lewd activities at Taylor's home when he spoke to police in 2011.

  The alleged victim in Provo's criminal charge is not one of those six men. Two days after the Deseret News story about Taylor was published in April, he told Provo investigators about repeated sexual encounters with Taylor during his high school years, from 2002 to 2006, when he was a member of the symphony, charging documents state.

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  Judge declines to dismiss sex abuse case against ex-youth symphony director
  Publisher: KSL
  Date: 8 Jul 2020
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  Source type: News article

  WEST JORDAN — A judge has declined to dismiss a set of criminal charges against a former youth symphony orchestra director accused of decades-old sexual misconduct with teenage boys.

  Third District Judge Kristine Johnson ruled late Monday that prosecutors in Salt Lake County have met their burden of proof, a preponderance of the evidence, at the early stage in the case against Brent E. Taylor, a former longtime director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony.

  Attorneys have focused their attention on the nitty-gritty of Utah’s statutes of limitation and whether they provide Taylor a defense to allegations from a former teenage employee who worked for him in the 1980s.

  No one disputes that the charges will hold up only if the boy was legally a child — age 13 or younger — at the time the alleged sexual abuse began. While the defense says the evidence fails to prove his age, prosecutors contend it strongly suggests he was not yet 14 years old.

  Taylor, 72, has been ordered to stand trial in separate cases in both Salt Lake and Utah counties. Prosecutors allege he inappropriately touched three boys at separate times during his roughly 40-year tenure with the youth symphony, during which thousands of students played in the orchestra.

  The victims of the alleged crimes in Salt Lake County, Jeff and Scott, were childhood friends who lived in Taylor’s Sandy neighborhood. They have agreed to be identified by their first names.

  Taylor has pleaded not guilty to two charges of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. Scott’s allegation was not a part of the timeline debate because he was younger, either 12 or 13 years old, at the time of the alleged abuse.

  The criminal charges follow a 2018 Deseret News report detailing allegations of misconduct from six different men, including Jeff and Scott. The orchestra said it does not tolerate sexual abuse and encourages anyone with knowledge of misconduct to inform authorities.

  Last year, Scott and Jeff testified separately that Taylor gave them back rubs and massages before the physical contact eventually progressed into Taylor touching their genitals and performing oral sex.

  Scott said he felt he and Taylor, his Sunday School teacher for a time, were in a relationship. Jeff testified that he began mowing Taylor’s lawn as a child before joining a symphony work crew that sorted music and set up for performances.

  Jeff said Tuesday he believes the case is strong and although it is moving slowly in court, he has faith in the judicial system.

  “The value in this to me is that other people have been able to find closure,” he said. “It’s something that I wasn’t able to address earlier in my life. And if I had, maybe there wouldn’t be as many victims as there are. Coming forward has allowed me to find some closure in that.”
  "The value in this to me is that other people have been able to find closure."
  –Jeff

  Defense attorney Cara Tangaro emphasized in a June 29 hearing supporting her motion to dismiss that Jeff previously testified he could not be sure how old he was when the sex acts occurred.

  Prosecutor Brett Keeler countered that according to Jeff’s testimony, the incidents happened several times before he became an Eagle Scout in the springtime following his 14th birthday in winter, and were “very much involved” at the time he was awarded the badge.

  Tangaro pointed out the abuse could have begun after Jeff’s birthday and before the Eagle Scout ceremony. She did not return a message Tuesday but has previously maintained her client’s innocence.

  Taylor appeared over video in a jacket and tie from his home in Colorado, where he was ordered to wear a court-ordered ankle monitor ahead of trial.

  In her Monday order, the judge found the state made a “sufficient showing” that the incidents occurred before Jeff was 14, under the standard of a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.

  But Johnson noted the finding could change under a higher standard of evidence at trial. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the the threshold for a criminal conviction.

  In Utah County, a former teen musician came forward in April 2018 as a victim of Taylor from 2002-2006, disclosing that other youth musicians “were involved in these sexual activities sometimes,” court documents say. Taylor was ordered to stand trial there on a charge of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, in American Fork’s 4th District Court.

  The court order comes amid a renewed debate over statutes of limitation after the Utah Supreme Court threw out a 2016 state law allowing new lawsuits over decades-old abuse. Critics of the decision, including many who said they survived childhood sexual abuse, have called for a ballot measure allowing voters to bring back the law.

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  Trial delayed for ex-youth symphony leader accused of sexual crime
  Publisher: KSL
  Date: 30 Mar 2022
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  Source type: News article

  AMERICAN FORK — The jury trial for a former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony accused of sexually abusing a musician will be delayed partly due to the man's poor health.

  Brent E. Taylor, 74, is accused of abusing a teenage musician in Utah County between 2002 and 2006 while he was at the helm of the prestigious organization that has toured within the United States and abroad. He is charged with one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony.

  Several men, including former neighbors of Taylor and former musicians and employees of the symphony, spoke to the Deseret News in 2018 and accused the former music director of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct between 1985 and 2003. Days after the story was published, a former teenage musician not involved in the news story came forward and told investigators about repeated sexual encounters he allegedly had with Taylor during the man's high school years. Criminal charges for the alleged abuse were filed in November 2018.

  The case was scheduled to go to trial on April 11, but in a hearing on March 23, Taylor's attorney Cara Tangaro asked for the trial to be delayed. She said she has a conflict with a trial for a client who is in prison, which is prioritized, and that Taylor's health is not good enough for him to be able to communicate with her or participate in his trial.

  Tangaro also provided a letter and pictures detailing a recent hospital stay for her client. She further told the judge that Taylor is dying and his mind is not well.

  Deputy Utah County Attorney Julia Thomas argued against moving the trial, noting that the letter Tangaro showed to support that her client did not indicate any life-threatening conditions. Still, she said understood that there was likely nothing that could be done about Tangaro having a conflicting trial for an incarcerated client.

  Fourth District Judge Roger Griffin expressed concern that Taylor is either playing the system or playing his attorney, and said that he wants to get the trial done before Taylor's health deteriorates further.

  "This is a frustrating case because it's four years old and we need to get to trial," Griffin said.

  The judge scheduled a second hearing for Tuesday before officially delaying the trial. Currently, new dates for the trial are not set.

  In a second criminal case filed in West Jordan, Taylor is facing two counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child. A jury trial in that case is scheduled for May.

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  Judge accuses ex-youth symphony leader of exaggerating health issues to avoid sex abuse trial
  Publisher: KSL
  Date: 17 Jun 2023
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  AMERICAN FORK, Utah — A judge issued a warrant Tuesday for a 75-year-old former youth symphony leader accused of sexual abuse of a teenager years ago, ruling that the man has been exaggerating his medical symptoms to avoid trial for his felony charges.

  Fourth District Judge Roger Griffin said Brent E. Taylor was “willfully failing to appear” in court and was “malingering and exaggerating (medical) symptoms to evade trial.”

  Taylor is charged with forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony. He also faces other criminal charges in Utah’s 3rd District Court: two counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

  Charges in the two cases were filed against Taylor following a Deseret News investigation reporting that three former employees of a youth symphony orchestra in Utah County accused Taylor of either sexually abusing them or inappropriately touching them years apart when they were teenagers.

  A fourth man also recalled alleged sexual interactions with Taylor as a young teen and said the man provided him with alcohol and marijuana. Another accuser filed a police report in 2011 alleging that his brother-in-law had been abused by Taylor as a youth. A sixth man, also a former orchestra employee, described lewd activities at Taylor’s home when he spoke to police in 2011.

  Taylor attended Tuesday’s hearing virtually from a recliner in his home in Federal Heights, Colorado, as he has attended most hearings during the last few years since he has been on pretrial release.

  The judge revoked the pretrial release on Tuesday and encouraged Taylor to find a ride from Colorado to Utah County and turn himself in, saying he may be more comfortable doing that than being picked up by police officers.

  Tuesday’s hearing was the first hearing after a medical evaluation ordered by Griffin was completed. Four trial dates have been set in the case, three of which were canceled due to Taylor’s health, and the fourth for other reasons.

  Taylor is a former director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, and in this case is accused of sexual misconduct with a teenage musician. He was a resident of Provo when he was first charged in 2018 and had recently retired after four decades with the symphony.

  He is accused of engaging in sexual behavior with the teenage musician between 2002 and 2006 in Utah County, and abuse of a former employee and another boy in Sandy in the mid-1980s, beginning when the boys were 12 and 13 years old.

  A motion before Tuesday’s hearing filed by prosecutors explained that the court declined to take Taylor into custody when he was charged, and instead set specific release conditions. He was required to post a sign on his doors saying no one under 18 was allowed inside, have random home visits by investigators, be accompanied by an adult if he left his home, and his religious leader was to be informed of the charges.

  The motion also said Taylor has not continued filing proof of weekly monitoring visits since early 2021.

  Defense attorney Cara Tangaro said she plans to appeal the warrant. She claimed there were issues with the medical evaluation the judge relied upon. She said the doctor took 90 minutes for the evaluation when he previously said it would take half a day and determined Taylor was ambulatory despite him staying on a gurney the entire evaluation.

  “I am concerned by that evaluation by that doctor,” she said.

  Tangaro also said she plans to ask for an evidentiary hearing so that doctor and Taylor’s other doctors can testify.

  In a legal filing, she said the medical evaluation does not represent a change of circumstances, but just an opinion. She explained Taylor is taking high doses of prescribed opioids, has diabetes, cognitive issues, respiratory issues and other issues that sometimes make it hard for him to live independently. Tangaro said her client is sometimes in too much pain to attend doctor appointments.

  “It has always been (my) position based on observation of Mr. Taylor that he was incapable of assisting in his own trial and that it would be dangerous to his health to attempt to do so,” she said.

  The judge noted that the doctor was recommended by Tangaro and paid by both parties to obtain an unbiased medical evaluation.

  The doctor determined that “a jail or prison would and should be able to accommodate any health needs that Mr. Taylor has.”

  Deputy Utah County attorney Julia Thomas expressed concern that an evidentiary hearing and appeal are other delay tactics, and asked that the case not be stayed during an appeal.

  In the motion, Thomas said Taylor “has inflated his medical condition over the past four and a half years to avoid trial for sexually abusing three boys, who have a right to a speedy trial equal to the defendant’s.”

  A status hearing is scheduled for Taylor on June 20, and Griffin said Taylor is expected to appear in the American Fork courthouse for that hearing and be in custody.

  Taylor is scheduled for a jury trial in his 3rd District Court case beginning in January 2024.

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  Is youth symphony leader charged with Utah sex crimes tied to death of his nurse?
  Publisher: KSL
  Date: 9 Sep 2023
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  AMERICAN FORK — A man who was ordered to turn himself in at a Utah jail in June after a judge determined he was exaggerating medical conditions to delay his criminal case is now out of contact with the court and his own attorney.

  And while the judge wondered whether Brent E. Taylor, 75, "has disappeared," a prosecutor said the former youth symphony leader accused of sexually abusing teens involved in a youth orchestra years ago may also be connected to the recent death of his nurse.

  Taylor is charged with forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, in Utah County. He also faces other criminal charges in Salt Lake County: two counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony; and two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

  Taylor, who now lives in Colorado, was living in Provo when he was first charged in 2018, having recently retired after four decades with the Utah Valley Youth Symphony. The charges accuse him of abuse in the mid-1980s and mid-2000s.

  In a hearing before 4th District Judge Roger Griffin on Tuesday, defense attorney Cara Tangaro explained that Sebastian Chapa — the nurse who was texting and emailing her on Taylor's behalf — either accidentally or purposely overdosed and died. Now the phone Chapa used is in evidence and unavailable to Taylor.

  "What you're telling me ... is your client is not only refusing to turn in but now he has disappeared?" Griffin asked.

  Taylor is scheduled for another hearing on Sept. 19. Griffin said if Taylor is not in custody at that time and does not appear at that hearing, the jury trial scheduled in his case in early October would likely need to be canceled.

  Tangaro told the judge she knows Taylor is still at the same home but she wasn't able to prove that. She said the only way she is able to contact her client is through calling his 93-year-old mother, who she said does not have the technology to take a photo of him to prove he was there.

  "We don't even know where he is," the judge said.

  But deputy Utah County attorney Julia Thomas said there could be more going on. She said Chapa "died mysteriously."

  After the judge asked if she was implying that Taylor could be a suspect in his caretaker's death, Thomas said, "I think that is a possibility."

  "As I understand it, he didn't report (Chapa's) death for nearly a day to police. I think there are suspicious circumstances," the prosecutor said. "He's also not providing information to (Chapa's) family about what happened."

  The Federal Heights Police Department in the Colorado city where Taylor lives did not respond to inquiries from KSL.com about the death, but after a records request was made, it said it had no records related to Chapa's death.

  Thomas told the judge "there is no doubt" in her mind or the minds of the victims she has worked with in the case, that Chapa was also a victim of Taylor's alleged sex crimes.

  Thomas also said she believes Taylor is avoiding the warrant for his arrest.

  Tangaro defended her client and said she spoke with Chapa on multiple occasions and that he was always adamant he was not a victim.

  "To say that now that he's dead is really unfair," she said.

  Regardless of whether Taylor is being investigated in Colorado, he is missing in action on cases in Utah.

  In 2019, Taylor made a deal with prosecutors to remain free pending his court proceedings due to his out-of-state residency, health issues and the fact the Utah County crimes allegedly happened nearly 40 years ago. But the deal required that he wear an ankle monitor. The judge revoked that pretrial release in June and encouraged Taylor to find a ride from Colorado to Utah County and turn himself in.

  There is also a dispute over whether Taylor has been using the GPS monitoring that was ordered by the court. He had the monitor was removed for health reasons at one point in the case. Tangaro said it is back on, but admitted when questioned that she hasn't seen it and her client has just told her it is still at his home.

  Tangaro said her client has been confined at home for four years, but Griffin said they do not know for sure that's where he is without proof of GPS monitoring. Thomas agreed with the judge.

  The question about the GPS monitor was first brought up in June. But in Tuesday's hearing, neither attorney said they had contacted Geo Services, the Colorado company that is supposed to be conducting the monitoring, to verify whether Taylor still has a GPS monitor.

  Weekly proof of that monitoring has not been filed in the case since early 2021.

  In addition to his Utah County trial in October, Taylor is scheduled for trial in the Salt Lake County case beginning Jan. 30, 2024.

  The criminal charges were filed against Taylor after a 2018 Deseret News story reported that three former teen employees of the orchestra said Taylor either sexually abused them or inappropriately touched them between 1985 and 2003, a former neighbor recalled sexual interactions with Taylor as a young teen, a fifth person filed a police report in 2011 alleging that his brother-in-law had been abused by Taylor as a youth, and another former orchestra employee described lewd activities at Taylor's home when he spoke to police in 2011.

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  Ex-Utah County youth symphony leader accused of molesting teens pleads guilty just before trial
  Publisher: KSL
  Date: 18 Jun 2024
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  AMERICAN FORK — Former youth symphony leader Brent E. Taylor pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, admitting he engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy about 20 years ago.

  The plea comes shortly after he was arrested at what was scheduled to be the start of his own jury trial — which the court was planning to hold with or without him.

  It is now almost six years after the initial charges were filed against him, and after months of delays — many of which were due to his health and his failure to appear at court when ordered.

  Charges in two separate criminal cases were filed against Taylor following a Deseret News investigation reporting that three former employees of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony accused Taylor of either sexually abusing them or inappropriately touching them when they were teenagers. Taylor was the executive director of the symphony who retired in 2017 after 44 years with the group.

  He is accused of engaging in sexual behavior with a teenage musician between 2002 and 2006 in Utah County, the one associated with this plea, and abuse of a former employee and another boy in Sandy in the mid-1980s, beginning when the boys were 12 and 13 years old. Three others made abuse and lewdness allegations against him.

  Taylor's criminal charges in Salt Lake County — two counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony; and two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony — are still pending.

  Taylor, 76, pleaded guilty Tuesday under a plea deal that modified his charge from forcible sodomy to attempted forcible sodomy. He admitted to attempting to engage in sexual acts with someone over 14 in either 2004 or 2005.

  His case was scheduled for a jury trial this week. Attorneys had begun selecting jurors and made arrangements for instructions to jurors if Taylor was not at the trial, as well as arrangements for what he was allowed to wear if he did attend.

  The judge ruled in May that the trial would proceed with or without Taylor after both his attorneys and prosecutors said they had made efforts to locate him but could not.

  After failing to appear for hearings up until Thursday, Taylor's warrant was recalled Tuesday with a note that he had been arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 28.

  In the fall of 2023, Taylor repeatedly missed virtual court hearings. His attorney said he was unable to attend virtual hearings on his own after his nurse died.

  Previously, 4th District Judge Roger Griffin determined after reviewing medical reports that Taylor was exaggerating his poor health in order to delay his case and ordered him to turn himself in to the jail. At the time, Taylor was living in Colorado, but he lived in Provo when charges were filed in 2018.

  At the latest hearing in that case in February, his attorney said he was in a Colorado hospital and a warrant for him was still active.